QUANTUM QNT

A Short History of Memecoins, From Dogecoin to pump.fun

Updated | 4 min read | QUANTUM (QNT) community

2013: Dogecoin starts as a joke

Dogecoin launched on December 6, 2013. Software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer created it as a joke that poked fun at the speculation around other cryptocurrencies. The name and logo come from the "doge" meme featuring Kabosu, a dog. Within 30 days the website had more than one million visitors. On December 25, 2013, millions of coins were stolen in a hack of the Dogewallet platform, and a community effort called SaveDogemas later donated enough to cover the losses. That early story already shows both sides of the space: friendly community and real risk.

2020 to 2021: the first big boom

On December 20, 2020, Elon Musk tweeted "One Word: Doge," followed by a price rise of roughly 20 percent. In January 2021 the price rose over 800 percent in 24 hours, helped by Reddit users and the GameStop short squeeze. On May 4, 2021 the price first passed 50 cents, and on May 5, 2021 the market cap peaked above 85 billion US dollars. The Dogecoin Foundation announced its re-establishment in August 2021. In August 2024 Musk and Tesla won dismissal of a federal lawsuit alleging they defrauded investors by hyping Dogecoin, according to the same reference.

Shiba Inu was released in August 2020 on Ethereum by an anonymous creator using the name Ryoshi. In May 2021 Vitalik Buterin donated more than 50 trillion SHIB, worth over 1 billion dollars at the time, to the India COVID-Crypto Relief Fund, and also donated SHIB worth 665 million dollars to the Future of Life Institute. By late 2021, one account describes the price rising about 240 percent in a week in October, then losing about 55 percent by the end of November.

2021 to 2023: copycats and regulators

This is when Solana became a main home for memecoins thanks to low fees and quick confirmation. Background: what Solana is.

2024: pump.fun changes the launch process

The pump.fun domain was registered on September 19, 2023 and the platform launched on January 19, 2024. Users could create a token by uploading an image and choosing a name and ticker for under 2 dollars in fees, reportedly with a fair launch and no presales. Tokens that gain enough traction "graduate" to decentralized exchanges. By July 2024 over one million tokens had been created. Graduation thresholds and trading fees on the platform have changed over time, so this page quotes no current figures. See the current step-by-step guide and the pump.fun overview.

Most tokens launched this way fail to gain traction. Pump.fun also had controversies: livestreaming was suspended in November 2024 after backlash over a token whose 13-year-old creator dumped his holdings, UK users were banned in December 2024 after a Financial Conduct Authority warning, and a lawsuit filed in January 2025 alleged an unregistered securities exchange. Livestreaming was relaunched in April 2025. In July 2025 a token sale reportedly raised about 600 million dollars in 12 minutes.

2024 to 2025: celebrity and political coins

In February 2025 SEC staff stated that meme coins of the type they described are not securities under federal law, while noting that fraud related to meme coins may still be acted on by other agencies. It is a staff view, with no legal force.

What the history teaches

  1. Attention moves faster than substance. Prices often depend on social media momentum.
  2. Celebrity involvement can inflate and deflate a coin in days.
  3. Easy launches mean many scams. Learn rug pull warning signs and common scams.
  4. Communities that survive tend to be useful and open. See healthy community growth.

Where does QNT fit in? It is a Solana memecoin with a quantum computing theme, independent of Quantinuum Ltd. Read the overview and the risks. This history is education, not financial advice, and past booms say nothing about future prices.

Sources and further reading

Reported as of 2026-10-09. Rules, prices and tools change, so check the original pages.

Frequently asked questions

When was Dogecoin created?

December 6, 2013, by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, as a joke about crypto speculation.

When did pump.fun launch?

January 19, 2024, per Wikipedia, with the domain registered on September 19, 2023.

Are the Wikipedia figures final?

They are reported figures at the time of writing. Check original sources for anything you rely on.

Does memecoin history predict future prices?

No. It shows patterns of risk and attention, not what any token will do.

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QUANTUM (QNT) is the quantum sector memecoin on Solana. See the live chart, buys and burnt supply or read the token facts. Questions? Join the Telegram.